The Area 44 Project

DRaider90

DRaider90

Uwharrie Off-Road Volunteering
Joined
Oct 23, 2007
Location
Weddington, NC
This will be an attempt to map all the old OHV trails, and road beds that exist in the Uwharrie National Forest. There are many old closed Roads/Trails that snake throughout Uwharrie. Some of them can be seen from the current trail system, and there are even some that are marked with a post or gate saying "Road Closed". I am sure everyone has at least seen the gates, which some lead to things like the Spray Field which is a storage area for the Forest Service (we joked at workdays about it being Area 44, an Area 51 joke), to road beds/trails that can connect to our current trail system (like the road bed that goes to Saw Mill).

Information we gather from these hikes might be used in our efforts to help re-open old trails, but the main purpose is the quest to gain more knowledge about the trail/road system at Uwharrie. I can't be the only one that has passed what looks like old trail entrances etc and wondered where it went etc. We will probably wait till the trails open to start this project. It will make accessing some of the old trails/road beds a lot easier. We have a couple months till then to brainstorm ideas and discuss trails/road beds of interest that we have seen or heard about. :driver:
 
Sounds like a fun time and a great idea. It also sounds like a multi day job. Here is a thought though. Wouldn't the GPS units work better during the winter when there are no leaves on the trees? Schedule the hikes for March, then you've got 6-8 wks to get in shape, lol.
 
If you know him, get in touch with "radioman".
He was wheelin' the Ure Mnts. when they were still just hills.
He can probably show them all to you.


Matt
 
Lizooki said:
If you know him, get in touch with "radioman".
He was wheelin' the Ure Mnts. when they were still just hills.
He can probably show them all to you.
Matt
Click to expand...

If I remember correctly RadioMan was Bruce Hatton's old screen name, last time he posted (that I saw) he was using Deezul. He posted in our original "trail hike" thread 2 years ago. I talked with Janet Becker to see if she could find out how Bruce was doing, and if he could help out with the trail hike. Last I heard from her he isn't doing the greatest so hopefully he is doing better and can chime in sometime on all this.
 
Yep ... That's him. Been a while since I've seen him, but used to see him a lot. If you can find him ..... buy him a cup of Starbucks and he'll tell all.
And I had heard rumors of health problems from mutual friends.


Matt
 
drkelly said:
Sounds like a fun time and a great idea. It also sounds like a multi day job. Here is a thought though. Wouldn't the GPS units work better during the winter when there are no leaves on the trees? Schedule the hikes for March, then you've got 6-8 wks to get in shape, lol.
Click to expand...

The only thing with doing the hikes in March is with the trails closed your limited to the road beds/old trails you can realistically hike. Part of the process will be riding the current trails and scouting out trail paths that we come across. There are a couple on Daniel that I know of, that we wouldn't be able to access without hiking Daniel, then the old trails etc.

But with that said if a group wanted to go in March that would be great also. This will be a multi-trip project, I don't see us mapping everything in a day, or a weekend of that matter. And I am sure any hike that doesn't have me dying/dragging at the back of the group will go faster and be more productive, lol. :beer:
 
I finally got to meet Bruce a weekend or two back. He brought some of the old maps with him, and I got to learn a good bit about the old trails. I plan on using what I learned plus what ever else we learn from hikes to getting a better idea of where the old trails are at.
 
Ran into him yesterday at the Eldorado on his way out to the trails. Was doing pretty good, chatted with him for a bit before he had to head out.
 
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